There are probably very few people who genuinely need an SUV. They use more resources in their constructoin, they are heavier, they are more hazardous to others, they have a high centre of gravity so more likely to roll than other modern cars that are capable of carrying large families.We have no idea (yet) what happened in the case below, but whether the driver became incapacitated, or was driving dangerously, you just can't argue that the consequences of an out of control motorised vehicle are far more likely to cause serious injury and tragedy. And, dare I say it, the larger the vehicle, the more harm it easily cause. You don't need an SUV just because you are tall. Warning: Distressing account of a tragedy that happened in Wimbledon last year where two young schoolgirls died follows.Article from today's Sunday Timeshttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-land-rover-killed-our-daughter-at-school-we-still-need-justice-swpfnrlr9The Land Rover killed our daughter at school. We still need justiceSelena Lau, 8, was full of dreams when she died in the Wimbledon crash. In their first interview her parents share photographs, video and the pain of waiting for answersFebruary 4 2024, The Sunday TimesFranky and Jessie Lau treasure the video of their eight-year-old daughter playing the piano in a school concert last July. Selena Lau is seen concentrating intently as she plays Scott Joplin’s ragtime classic The Entertainer. It is a faultless and sparkling display; at the end the audience bursts into applause.It is the last video made of Selena. Shortly after the concert finished, a Land Rover smashed through a fence into the grounds of The Study, a preparatory school in Wimbledon, south London. Pupils and their families had gone outside after the concert to enjoy a picnic on the last day before the summer holidays.Selena and her friend Nuria Sajjad, 8, both died. About a dozen other children and parents were injured.Seven months on the Laus, both chartered accountants, are giving their first interview because they are desperate for answers. The police are investigating and have released a woman without charge.Jessie Lau, 45, says: “It has been a long time. We want to try to understand what happened. We lost our daughter. We expected her to be with us all our lives. This happened to her and to us. It was the end of my world. It has been seven months and we are still waiting.”Franky Lau, also 45, adds: “Each day it drags on, we are replaying what happened. We just want answers and justice. We are owed answers to what happened to our daughter.” How the tragedy unfoldedThe concert last July was on Selena’s grandmother’s birthday, and she was the only family member at the performance. Selena’s parents were working and her sister Isabella, 12, was being taught in a different building for older children a short distance away. Selena had practised the piano piece at home for months.Afterwards at the picnic Selena asked her grandmother Lai Lin Lau whether she thought her performance was good. “It was brilliant,” she replied.Selena then started walking over to a picnic table to get her grandmother a drink, when the car smashed through the fence. She was hit, and her grandmother was knocked unconscious for a few moments in the stampede that followed, although she was not seriously hurt.Jessie Lau was at her desk in the City when she received the call telling her to get to the school as quickly as possible. She hailed a cab, but it was a busy midsummer day during the Wimbledon tennis championships and the roads were congested. She was forced to get out at London Waterloo and take a train. As she left the car she heard on the radio that there had been an accident at her daughter’s school. She had called her husband and he dashed there too.Both parents arrived separately and were told Selena had died. Jessie went with her daughter’s body to St George’s Hospital in Tooting. Isabella went home with her father to collect Selena’s favourite toys, including a penguin and a teddy bear, to place next to her.The inquests into the girls’ deaths have been postponed while police investigate. The driver, a woman in her forties, was arrested last summer on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. She was bailed until September and then again until January. Last month the bail was lifted. In the meantime some of the families have started holding events and texting to support each other. Some have seen the driver in the area, adding to their frustration.‘She showed friends how to do their homework’The Laus’ home in south London is full of photographs of Selena and Isabella. One shows Selena and Nuria smiling, wearing matching green T-shirts for their house colours on sports day.When the couple speak of Selena, their eyes light up. She was a kind, thoughtful girl, who would do her sister’s household chores as well as her own. She was also an “intelligent and cheeky girl, adored by everyone”, they say. A “star” at school, Selena would tease Isabella — with whom she was gently competitive in the way loving sisters often are — that she was aiming for St Paul’s Girls’ School, the most academic selective girls’ school in the country.“Sometimes she said she wanted to be a doctor, other times she said she would like to be a YouTuber,” her mother says. She made videos of herself playing the oboe. “She showed her friends netball shots and how to do their homework.”On a shelf in their living room stands a Father’s Day card Selena made, with images of homework and music decorating the side of the card alongside drawings of her family surrounded by stars. For her grandfather she made a card with a message telling him that she loved the pork dish he cooked for her. She used Google Translate to translate the card into Chinese. “She asked me to check it — she spoke fluent Cantonese, but did not read or write the language and I said it looked fine,” Jessie says.Selena would make gifts for her mother including paper rings and necklaces which she would stud with plastic jewels. The family’s struggle goes on“It has broken the whole family, everyone’s life changed,” says Jessie Lau, who with her husband and Isabella decorated Selena’s coffin with rainbow stickers and 3D butterflies. Isabella shared a bedroom with her sister and has been trying not to be sad in front of parents for fear of upsetting them more. Her grandparents, both in their seventies, have lost weight and visibly aged. The couple admit they are struggling. Sometimes they argue. Answers to what happened that day would help them, they say.Trevor Sterling of the law firm Moore Barlow, which is representing the 20 affected families, believes there are lessons to be learnt from the tragedy. He wants the police to put time limits on cases involving a child’s death.“There need to be protocols put in place where you have had fatal accidents involving young children and those protocols should include timelines to make sure investigations are carried out without delays because delays here are unconscionable,” Sterling said.Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland, who is in charge of policing southwest London, said: “Our thoughts remain with the families of Nuria and Selena who we know are greatly loved and missed.“This was a tragic incident and we understand that the families want and need answers as to what happened. We are continuing to give them specialist support through our dedicated family liaison officers who are providing updates on the investigation where they can.“We recognise that the time taken can cause further distress but it is only right and fair to all involved that we carry out a thorough and extensive investigation.”
Andrew Jones ● 102d